contest

Oculus Rift is hosting their own contest for the most innovative virtual reality games, Mobile VR Jam 2015. Oculus is offering $1 million in prize money. With that much money up for grabs, competition is likely to be stiff. If you'd like to enter but would rather not go solo, Oculus can help you search for a development team. Developers should bring their A-game. This level of prize money and recognition could be a career game changer.

Japan's Sony is one of those rare companies that has had a nearly unaltered logo for more than 50 years, with the current design being used since 1956. But when Sony was riding high in 1981, a year and a half after the debut of the first Walkman, the company thought it would be a good idea to celebrate their 35th anniversary with a contest asking the public to redesign its logo. Thankfully, before it was too late, they realized it was not a good idea.

The Android Wear smartwatches may have already been officially announced, but Motorola seems to be not yet ready to go to market. In fact, it has just announced the winner of its watch face design contest, which could be featured on the smartwatch when it does launch.

The OnePlus One smartphone has finally started shipping to the first batch of invited buyers. But if you weren't one of those lucky enough to be chosen before, now you might have a chance to get your hands on an invite. All you've got to do is be prepared to storm your social networking sites and do whatever else this raffle tells you to.

The Google-owned Japanese robotics company SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials by a wide margin. It scored 27 out of 32 points, beating its nearest competitor IHMC Robotics by seven points. Coming up third was Tartan rescue with 18 points, and MIT following that with 16 points.

Microsoft has been going a bit contest-crazy lately with the run-up to and launch of its next-gen gaming console Xbox One. Aside from all the promotional contests for the system itself, last weekend it announced the "Made By You" Gamerpic design contest, which is still going on (deadline is Dec. 9.) Later in the week--two days ago--it announced a contest for designing the best Xbox One wireless controller.

Microsoft this week announced a contest whereby you can submit a Gamerpic design to be featured in the Xbox One Gamerpic Gallery. If your design is selected, it will appear for all Xbox One gamers to use as their Gamerpic. Plus, you'll get a free Xbox One controller "to commemorate the win," Microsoft wrote on the "Made By You" contest page.

NASA has the announced the winners of its 2013 International Space Apps Challenge, which opened to submissions back in late April. A total of 770 entries were sent in, and out of them five winners have been selected, one in each of the five categories presented. The winners were selected by judges from the European Space Agency and NASA, as well as partnered organizations. The goal of the contest was to create apps that help with space exploration, among other things.

On January 14, Google kicked off its 2013 Doodle 4 Google contest, which sought doodles from students K through 12 across the nation on the theme "My Best Day Ever." The first stage of the contest has reached its end and Google has selected winners from each state, publishing their doodles in each age group and asking the public to vote for the one they like most.

Netflix is looking to boost the reality of cloud computing via its OSS, taking it to the next level and helping it realize its potential. How is it doing this? Via its Netflix Cloud Prize competition, which it is using to challenge developers across the world to come up with improvements in secure, reliable, and usable, among other things. There are ten categories in total.

Google has launched its 2013 Doodle 4 Google contest, which invites students K through 12 in the United States to enter for a chance at a $30,000 scholarship. This year's theme? "My Best Day Ever..." The winning student will have his or her drawing displayed on the Google homepage in addition to the scholarship and grant awards.

If you can't wait until February 22 to get your hands on Sony's newest portable gaming device, you'll need to set aside some extra time for the bathroom. Your shot at winning a pre-release PlayStation Vita is at the same place where you can buy Fritos-filled burritos. Sony's new partnership with Taco Bell follows the storied tradition of fast food/video game enterprises - we're talking about Burger King Xbox 360 games, Nintendo Zone hotspots at McDonald's, and Kinect promotions at, again, Burger King.